Date of Award

1-1-2012

Document Type

Campus Access Dissertation

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Daniel Sabia

Abstract

This dissertation looks at the forces of regional integration fostered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) after the admission of South Africa to membership in 1994. The extensive political, economic, and social changes that accompanied the end of apartheid created a new regional environment friendlier to integration efforts. Specifically, this research focuses on how South African foreign policy and support for regional integration has changed in the fifteen years following Mandela's election in 1994; how South Africa's neighbors, specifically the governments of Botswana, Namibia, and Lesotho, assess the prospects and pitfalls of deeper economic integration; what potential steps to deeper economic integration and a currency union are likely to be implemented soon; and how the efforts in the SADC sub-region compare to those undertaken in the East African Community, the Economic Community of West African States, and continental efforts towards an African Economic Community. Regional integration will likely benefit South Africa more than neighboring states, but ensuring that everyone benefits from deeper SADC integration efforts is crucial to the success of integration efforts. This work argues, utilizing Hegemonic Stability Theory, that efforts at integration are likely to first take the form of an expansion of current Southern African Currency Union trade structures and Rand Monetary Area monetary structures to states that meet predetermined convergence criteria with a focus on inter-regional trade and predetermined inflation targets.

Rights

© 2012, William Andrew Jennings

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